£7/3 



/^<r^, (r.7^ 







E 713 
.H674 
Copy 1 



A QUESTION OF CONSCIENCE. 



LETTER FROM HON. GEORGE F. HOAR. 



To THE Editor of the Boston Herald: 

Will you give me space in your columns to answer a 
very serious attack which, I believe, you have published ? 
At a meeting- of the Essex Club, last Saturday, ATr. Ouigg. 
lately a Republican m.ember of Congress from New York, 
after some undeserved compliment, made this statement, 
referring to me : " What he wants us to do I can define 
in no other words than these: He wants us to skulk from 
our duty." 

I wish to put against this statement my emphatic denial. 
What 1 wanted the American people to do in the begin- 
ning, what I have wanted them to do all along, what 1 
want them to do now, is to do in the Philippines exactly 
what we have done, are doing, and expect to do, in Cuba. 
If we have skulked in Cuba, then Mr, Quigg may be justi- 
fied in saying that I would skulk in the Philippines. We 
have liberated both from Spain, and we have had no 
thought — at least I have had no thought — of giving either 
back to Spain. 

I should as soon give back a redeemed soul to Satan as 
give back the people of the Philippine islands to the cruelty 
and tyranny of Spain. Indeed, since ihey got arms, an 
army and an organization, I do not believe it would have 

1 




^f Pi p . *^ * 






b^en in the power of Spain to subdue them again. But the 
U'riited States never, in my judgment, should have allowed 
her to make the attempt. Having delivered them from 
Spain, we were bound in all honor to protect their newly 
acquired liberty against the ambition or greed of any other 
nation on earth. And we were equally bound to protect 
them against our own. We were bound to stand by them, 
a defender and protector, until their new governments 
were established in freedom and in honor ; until they had 
made treaties with the powers of the earth and were as 
secure in their national independence as Switzerland is 
secure, as Denmark is secure, as Belgium is secure, as San 
Domingo or Venezuela is secure. 

Now, if this be a policy of skulking from duty, I fail to 
see it. Perhaps I am not so familiar with the history or 
the vocabulary of liberty as Mr. Quigg. Perhaps they 
understand these things better in New York City than we 
do in Massachusetts. Perhaps Mr. Quigg is a better coun- 
sellor than I am to the representatives of the county of 
George Cabot, of Glover, of Whittier. of Nathan Dane and 
of Robert Rantoul. But, at any rate, the policy which I 
have stated seems to me the true American policy ; the 
counsel which I have feebly recited is the best I have to 
give. 0«)»J>A^/ 

We based our policy in regard to Cuba, did we not, on 
the ground that it was the policy of righteousness and lib- 
erty? We did not tempt the cupidity of any millionaire 
or even the honest desire for employment of any workman, 
by the argument that if we reduced the people of Cuba 
to our dominion we could make money out of her and she 
could not help herself. In those days we were appealing 
to the great, noble heart of America, and not to the 
breeches-pocket. 

I dififer from Mr. Quigg both as to principles and as 
to facts. If wc were bound in honor and in righteousness ; 
bound by the history of our own past ; bound by the prin- 
ciples and pledges of our people, to abstain from depriving 

2 



Cuba of the liberty we had given her because it was right, 
we are, in my judgment, all the more bound to abstain 
from depriving the people of the Philippine islands of 
their liberties because it is right. 

If I am right in affirming this as a matter of principle 
(and I am a little curious to see who will stand up and dis- 
pute it on Massachusetts soil, or who will speak any other 
doctrine to the sons of Essex), then the question becomes 
a question of fact. 

Are the people of the Philippine islands as well entitled 
to their freedom and independence as the people of Cuba ? 

Had they contributed as nuich to achieving their inde- 
pendence as had the people of Cuba ? 

Do they desire their independence as do the people of 
Cuba ? 

Are they fit to govern themselves as are the people of 
Cuba? 

Have they forfeited their right to their independence by 
any misconduct, such as attacking the army of the United 
States wantonly and without provocation? 

Now, the facts which enable us to answer all these ques- 
tions, about which the people have been so much misled 
during the last summer, come to us at length from the re- 
ports of the commanders of our army and navy in the 
Philippine islands. I have two witnesses to call. Gen. Otis 
and Admiral Dewey. While I may not adopt all their 
conclusions as to policy (and it is not the special business 
of soldiers and sailors to determine the policies of the coun- 
try), I have no desire to go beyond them and the men for 
whom they vouch in the matter of fact. 

But before citing the evidence, let me state wiiat I would 
do to-day, as I have stated what I desired to do before the 
war broke out. The Philippine armies are scattered. 
Gen. Lawton said they were the bravest men he had ever 
seen. But they have been beaten in every battle. Agui- 
naldo is a fugitive and in concealment. They are in the 
condition that Spain was in after Napoleon had over- 

3 



thrown her navies and driven out her Kin^^ at the begin- 
ning of the peninsular war with a 

Host as huge and strong as e'er defied 

Their God and placed their trust in human pride. 

Whether they will repeat the history of Spain, dispers- 
ing like foam when they are attacked, coming together 
again like the thunder-cloud, and in tiie end wear out the 
patience of the conqueror, it is not worth while to specu- 
late. It is not from any fear of any foeman, powerful or 
insignificant, that the American people are to determine 
their duty. If the thing be right, they mean to do it. If 
it be wrong, they will not do it. 

I would send Gen. Wood or Gen. Miles or Admiral 
Dewey to Luzon. I would have him gather about him a 
cabinet of the best men among the Filipinos who have the 
confidence of the people and desire nothing but their wel- 
fare. In all provinces and municipalities where civil gov- 
ernment is now established possessing the confidence of 
the people, I would consult with their rulers and represen- 
tatives. I would lend the aid of the army of the United 
States only to keep order. I would permit the people to 
make laws and to administer laws, subject to some super- 
vision or inspection, till the disturbed times are over and 
peace has settled down again upon that country, insuring 
the security of the people against avarice, ambition or 
peculation. 

So soon as it seems that government can maintain itself 
peacefully and in order, I would by degrees withdraw the 
authority of the United States, making a treaty with theiu 
that we would protect them against the cupidity of any 
other nation and would lend our aid for a reasonable time 
to maintain order and law. I would not hesitate, if it were 
needful, although I have not the slightest belief that it 
would be needful, to vote to make them a loan of a moder- 
ate sum to replenish their wasted treasury. 

4 



Now, if this be skulking, if this be ignoble, if this be un- 
worthy of an American citizen or a Massachusetts senator, 
then I must plead guilty to Mr. Quigg's charge. But 
these are the things I would have done, and this is the 
thing 1 would do now. If this counsel had been followed, 
not a man would have died on either side ; not a drop of 
blood would have been spilt ; not a recruit would have been 
needed by army or navy since the day when Manila capitu- 
lated to Otis. Nearly all of the 36 war vessels, with their 
5.000 or 6,000 men. could have been ordered home more 
than a year ago. Our army there, greater than that with 
which Lee defended his lines so long; greater than that 
which Sherman led to the sea ; greater than our armies of 
the revolution or of the war of 1812, would all have come 
home except a small garrison. 

I have carefully read Admiral Dewey's dispatches, in- 
cluding the testimony of two naval officers whom he sent 
on a two months' tour through Luzon, before the conflict 
between our troops and those of Aguinaldo, which, under 
his own signature, he declares to be the best statement of 
the condition of things there that has been made. I have 
read many of the dispatches of Gen. Otis. A few of these 
have been ])ul)lished. Some of them have, so far, been 
withheld from public knowledge. They establish beyond 
reasonable doubt, clearly — 

I — That Aguinaldo is an honest, patriotic and brave 
man. Indeed, that is the express testimony of Mr. Schur- 
man, president of Cornell University, and president of the 
commission a])pointed by our government to investigate 
matters there. 

2 — That Aguinaldo was the chosen leader of the people 
of the Philippine islands. 

3 — That that people have from the beginning desired 
independence, and desire it now. 

4 — That this desire was communicated to our command- 
ers when they gave them arms, accepted their aid, and 
brought Aguinaldo from his exile when he was put in coni- 

5 



mand of 30,(XX3 Filipino soldiers, who were already in arms 
and organized. 

5 — That the people of the Philippine islands, before we 
fired upon their troops, had delivered their own land from 
Spain, with the single exception of the town of Manila, 
and that they hemmed in the Spanish troops on land by a 
line extending from water to water. 

6 — That we could not have captured the Spanish gar- 
rison, which was done by an arrangement beforehand, 
upon a mere show of resistance, but for the fact that 
they were so hemmed in by Aguinaldo's forces and could 
not retreat beyond the range and fire of the guns of our 
fleet. 

7 — That during all this period from the beginning to the 
final conflict the Filipinos were repeatedly informing our 
government, not only by communications addressed to the 
commanders on land and sea, but by those addressed to 
the President of the United States, that they desired their 
freedom, and that they were never informed of any pur- 
pose on our part to subdue them. 

8 — That they were fit for independence. They had 
churches, libraries, works of art, and education. They 
were better educated than many American communities 
within the memory of some of us. They were eager and 
ambitious to learn. They were governing their entire 
island, except Manila, in order and quiet, with municipal 
governments, courts of justice, schools, and a complete 
constitution resting upon the consent of the people. They 
were better fitted for self-government than any country 
on the American continent south of us, from the Rio 
Grande to Cape Horn ; or than San Domingo or Hayti 
when these countries, respectively, achieved their inde- 
pendence ; and are fitter for self-government than some of 
Ihem are now. They are now as fit for self-government 
as was Japan when she was welcomed into the family of 
nations. 

9 — That the outbreak of hostilities was not their fault. 

6 



but ours. A patrol, not a Iiostile military force, ap- 
proached a small village between the lines of the two 
armies : a village on the American side of the line of de- 
markation, to which some of our soldiers had been moved 
in disregard of the rule applicable to all cases of truce. 
When this patrol approached this town it was challenged. 
How far the Filipinos understood our language, or how 
far our pickets understood the reply that they made in 
their own language, does not appear. But we fired upon 
them first. The fire was returned from their lines. There- 
upon it was returned again from us, and several Filipinos 
were killed. As soon as Aguinaldo heard of it he sent a 
message to Gen. Otis saying that the firing was without 
his knowledge and against his will ; that he deplored it, 
and that he desired hostilities to cease and would withdraw 
his troops to any distance Gen. Otis should desire. To 
which the American general replied that, as the fighting 
had begun, it must go on. Now. how absurd for the per- 
sons who could have stopped it at any time from the begin- 
nmg, w ith a single word of assurance that they meant to 
respect the liberties of the people of the Philippine islanrls. 
to charge the men who have been constantly begging them 
to say that word with being responsible for the continuance 
of the war. 

10— That on the 28th of December. 1898, the two sides 
being at peace, although great uneasiness and irritation 
had already manifested itself on the part of the Filipinos, 
who were afraid we meant to subjugate them. President 
McKinley sent to Gen. Otis a proclamation. Remember 
that a dozen times during the sj^-ing and summer and au- 
tumn Aguinaldo had proclaimed that his peo])Ie were seek- 
ing their independence, and had implored tlie "great 
American people, by all their great history and traditions." 
with which he a])i)ears to have been quite familiar, not to 
interfere with it. 

Now, on the 28th of December. 1898. the President of 
the United States sent to Gen. Otis a proclamation which 

7 



he commanded him to issue. Gen. Otis, on reading it, 
to use the language of his report, said : 

After fully considering the President's proclamation 
and the temper of the Tagalos, with whom I was in daily 
discussion of jiolitical problems, and the friendly intentions 
of the United States government toward them, I concluded 
that certain words and expressions therein, such as " sov- 
ereignty," " right of cession," and those which directed 
immediate occupation, etc., though most admirably em- 
ployed and tersely expressive of actual conditions, might 
be advantageously used by the Tagalo war party to incite 
widespread hostilities among the natives. The ignorant 
classes had been taught to believe that certain words, such 
as *' sovereignt}-," " protection," etc., had peculiar mean- 
ing disastrous to their welfare and significant of future 
political domination. 

The ignorant people of America have been taught to be- 
lieve just such things. I have seen such things in the 
writings of Washington and Adams and Jefferson, of 
Whittier and Garrison and Nathan Dane and Rantoul, and 
others of the men of Essex. Now Gen. Otis goes on to 
say: 

It was my opinion, therefore, that 1 would be justified 
in so amending the paper that the beneiicent object of the 
United States government would be brought clearly with- 
in the comprehension of the people. 

Whereupon Gen. Otis proceeds to amend the President's 
proclamation by striking out everything in it which con- 
tains a purpose to assume sovereignty or protection, and 
which was significant of future political domination ; and, 
instead thereof, he issued, on the 4th day of January, 1899 
— less than eight weeks before the outbreak of hostilities — 
a proclamation, which he gives in a report, in which he 
suppressed all these utterances, and assured them that it is 
the purpose of the people of the ITnited States to give 
them, " in every possible way, the full measure of individ- 

8 



iial rights and lil)erty which is the heritage of a free peo- 
ple." And he adds : 

I am convinced that it is the intention of the United 
States government to seek the cstabhshment of a most hh- 
cral government for the islands, in wliich the people them- 
selves shall have as full representation as the maintenance 
of law and order will permit, and which shall be suscepti- 
ble of development, on the lines of increased representa- 
tion and the bestowal of increased powers, into a govern- 
ment as free and independent as is enjoyed by the most 
favored provinces of the world. 

That assurance which Gen. Otis gave to the people of 
Manila is just what I have always wanted, and all I have 
always wanted, to give them. But, unhappily. Gen. Otis' 
proclamation was frustrated. In the meantime he had 
sent a copy of the President's proclamation to Gen. Miller, 
who was lying opposite lloilo, burning for a fight, and 
who, niucli to Gen. Otis' distress, as his dispatches show, 
published it. So you had the commanding-general deny- 
ing all purpose of domination or of interfering with their 
independence, on the one hand, and the President of the 
United States, on the other, asserting that purpose ; and 
the Filipinos were naturally alarmed and shocked. 

Gen. Otis goes on to tell how Aguinaldo appealed to his 
people to stand by their independence, how the Filipino 
newspapers took it up in angry articles, and how the peo- 
ple, who were beginning to be pacified and hopeful, were 
excited again, and justly. 

Now put yourselves, men of Essex, in the places of 
these people. What would your fathers have done if Gen. 
Gage and Lord North had been the actors ? What would 
any people on the face of the earth, whose bosoms are cap- 
able of holding the sentiment of liberty, have done? Is 
it not infamous for anybody to turn around and tell you 
that the men who believe that the Filipinos should have 
been assured just what Gen. Otis tried to assure them of, 
are responsible for the outbreak of the war? Gen. Otis 



says that the proclamation which actually came out, 
through Gen. Miller's departure from his intentions, was 
calculated to cause, and did cause, the hostilities and excite 
alarm and indignation in the bosoms of that freedom-seek- 
ing people. 

I do not know what other men may think, or what other 
men may sa}'. But there is not a drop of blood in my 
veins, there is not a feeling in my heart that does not re- 
spect a weak people struggling with a strong one. 

Some of our friends tell us that the Filipinos are not a 
peo])le. President McKinley says they are. and that he 
desires " in every possible way to insure them the full 
measure of individual rights and liberty which is the heri- 
tage of a free people." Gen. Otis says they are, and that 
it is the intention of the United States government to ap- 
])oint the representative men of the Philippine islands to 
civil positions of trust in a government " as free and inde- 
pendent as is enjoyed by the most favored provinces of the 
earth." 

When Patrick Henry was making his great speech in 
the old court house in Virginia, ending with the words : 
*' Give me liberty, or give me death," he was interrupted 
by somebody with a shout of " treason." He finished his 
sentence, and replied, as every Essex school-boy knows: 
" If this be treason, make the most of it." I am unworthy 
to loose the latchet of the shoes of Patrick Henry. But I 
claim to love human liberty as well as he did, and I believe 
the love of human liberty will never be held to be treason 
by Massachusetts. 

There were five of my name and blood who stood in 
arms at Concord bridge in the morning of the revolution, 
on the 19th of April, 1775. My grandfather stood with 
John Adams and Thomas Jefiferson and Benjamin Frank- 
lin when they presented to the continental Congress that 
great paper, the bringing in of which was the foremost 
action of human history, which declares that the just 
powers of government rest upon the consent of the people, 

10 



J 
J 



and that when a people desires it, the laws of nature, and 
the laws of God entitle them to take a separate and ecjual 
station among the nations of the earth. 

And these Filipinos, as President McKinley says, and as 
Gen. Otis says, " are a people," and so entitled to be inde- 
pendent. 

I have no right to feel any peculiar pride in the action 
of any ancestor of my own in those great days which tried 
men's souls, and when all true Americans thought in that 
way, although I should be disgraced, and ought to hide my 
head from the gaze of men, if I were to depart from those 
principles, i'hit I have a right to feel a just pride in, and 
to boast of something much higher than any personal kin- 
drf-'l. I am a son of Massachusetts. For more than 
three-score years and ten I have sat at her dear feet. I 
have seen the light from her beautiful eyes. I have heard 
high counsel from her lips. She has taught me to love 
liberty, to stand by the weak against the strong, when the 
rights of the weak are in peril ; she has led me to believe 
that if I do this, however humbly, how^ever imperfectly, 
and whatever other men may say, I shall have her appro- 
bation, and shall be deemed not unworthy of her love. 
Other men \v\\\ do as they please. But as for me, God 
helping me, I can do no otherwise. 

GEORGE F. HOAR. 
Washington, D. C, Jan. 2, 1900. 



\ 



11 






LIBKHKY Uh CUNOKtbb 



013 744 808 7 m 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 744 808 7 



HoUinger Corp. 
pH8.5 



